The New Orleans Pelicans are just days away from training camp and the start of the 2021-22 season.
With a bunch of new faces and the return of Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, fans are eager to see if the Pelicans have improved from their 11th place finish last season.
New Orleans Pelicans training camp starts next week
Pelicans training camp opens on September 28th and we are now less than a month away from regular-season games, which doesn’t seem possible.
We’ve barely had time to digest this offseason before getting right back into things and the Pelicans will be learning on the fly with a new head coach and at least three new players in the starting lineup.
If the Pelicans want to make the leap into the playoffs, they need to be more consistent from night to night, and they can start building those habits right away in training camp.
Here are three areas that need focus.
The New Orleans Pelicans need non-stop effort
The biggest criticism against the Pelicans last season is that they didn’t always give maximum effort.
This probably starts with Brandon Ingram, who was sometimes accused of not playing the full 24 seconds on defense, but it filtered down through players like Eric Bledsoe, Lonzo Ball, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jaxson Hayes and even Zion Williamson at times.
I’m hoping that the addition of hungry players like Naji Marshall will help this cause, as he was a vocal leader during Summer League and was setting the tone with his effort.
The Pelicans need to push themselves in practice and preseason and establish that this year is going to be different in regards to effort. Willie Green can do his part by rewarding players who give it and benching the ones who don’t.
The New Orleans Pelicans have to buy-in on defense, starting with the stars
Stan Van Gundy often remarked that the Pelicans of last season were one of the quietest teams he’d ever coached.
He wasn’t just talking about their personalities off the court, but they literally didn’t talk on defense last season. I think this will be something that Willie Green will try to change, namely by promoting guys like Josh Hart and Naji Marshall into more prominent roles where they can be vocal leaders.
But again, this starts at the top, so Zion Williamson and Brandon need to buy-in on defense and set an example for their young teammates.
They don’t have to be the best defenders on the team, but if guys like Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Didi Louzada and Kira Lewis Jr. see the two stars giving effort on defense, they will step up their games as well.
The young Pelicans were getting after it defensively in Summer League and I hope that ethos carries over and inspires the stars to be better.
The New Orleans Pelicans need to run and have fun
It was a slog to watch the New Orleans Pelicans at times last season, which is weird to say about a team with a superstar that scored a lot of points.
Their offense was slow at times, though the Pelicans did push the pace when they could. The half court offense was pretty much just isolation ball with Zion or Brandon Ingram, which left a lot of other guys standing around.
I’m hoping the Pelicans push the pace more with their defense by getting steals and blocks and then going the other way, but it would also be nice to see more ball and player movement in the half court.
The Pelicans are going to be one of the youngest teams in the NBA, which can be a weakness, but it can also be a strength, as they have a lot of guys with young legs to run out there on a given night.
I hope the Pelicans lean into it by playing a super fast-paced offense that doesn’t rely so heavily on Zion barreling through five defenders.
The Pels should be a fun team but it starts by playing hard and using the defense to create fast breaks and easier opportunities in the half court.